Tuesday, December 18, 2012

TWD: Finnish Pulla

Oh my, but this is a fabulous recipe.  It's a sweet, but not so sweet bread.  It made the house smell AMAZING.  We are cardamom lovers in this house, so I was looking forward to this one.

I started this morning.  The dough was simple to put together.  I used my stand mixer to do the kneading.  I am lucky to live near a fabulous spice shop called The Spice House.  They have cardamom seeds that have already been shelled.  It's lovely because it retains potency that ground cardamom loses, but I don't have to break open all the pods.  Win!  I have a dedicated spice grinder, and after a quick whir I was ready to go.  

I was pretty happy for the P & Q this week.  I saw that some other folks had played with the rising time some, so I was fairly confident about walking away for a bit.  I made the dough, let it do the first rise, and then shaped it.  It was so silky and so easy to roll and braid.  After shaping, I put it in the fridge for a few hours.  After it came back to room temperature, I let it rise for another half hour or so and then baked it off.  I chose to make two smaller loaves instead of a round.  One was coated with pearlized sugar and almonds and one with just sugar.

They are a gorgeous golden brown.  As of this writing (9:00 pm Chicago time) all of one loaf and most of the other are already gone.  I will say that there seven of us eating it, but still.  It's great on its own, but we also discovered that it's amazing with a small amount of nutty, sweet cheese (Sartori) melted on top.  

I will be making this again.  The friends who are over and helping us to eat it have threatened me if I don't.  My photos absolutely do not do the bread justice.

 Here is the version with almonds.

 This is the sugar only loaf.

Sliced and ready to be eaten.

The Boy gives his sign of approval.

Go visit Erin's blog for the recipe (You want to make this).  Or go buy the book already!

19 comments:

Paula @ Vintage Kitchen said...

I too, made it this morning. And loved it! Glad it was a hit in your house too, it came out gorgeous!

Julia said...

This will be made again here too! It was so good.

Cathleen | My Culinary Mission said...

Your loaves look lovely! This is a wonderful bread. I'm making it again to take to my Aunt - we are part Finnish. :) ~Happy Holidays!!!

Teresa said...

Your braided loaves look so lovely. I have only one tiny piece of mine left - each person at the meeting I brought it to took some home with them!

Anonymous said...

I think your photos look great! This was a keeper at my house too. I'm envious about your local spice shop :)

Gretchen Noelle @ Provecho Peru said...

Your loaves look lovely! Glad you enjoyed them -- all 7 of you!

Have Apron....Will Bake said...

Love your loaves! I think I will do that next time (and I'm pretty sure there will be a next time) I am new to cardamom and I totally get why people love it! The smell of the cardamom when I was crushing the seeds was intoxicating. And the flavour it imparted in the baked pulla was lovely.

Catherine said...

Love your post and isn't it great to make a bread that everyone raves about and devours so readily! Blessings and Merry Christmas!

loavesandstitches said...

Nice! If it were not Christmas, I would have made two separate loaves as well. Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Winner! that says it all.

Inge and Gillian said...

It is always satisfying when everybody loves the outcome of a given recipe. Your pulla loaves look delicious.

Anonymous said...

Yum! Sounds great with cheese!

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Unknown said...

I'm being a TwD slackard but fantasize about getting back to regular baking. You making two loaves instead of the one wreath makes this recipe less daunting!

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Cher Rockwell said...

I love your versions! They all look wonderful